LAS CRUCES - New Mexico State baseball has seen a tremendous turnaround under Brian Green.

The 36 wins this season is the Aggies' most since 2010 and Green, who's in his fourth season, has turned around the program after NMSU won just 11 games in 2015. But the next step for the program is to win a championship.

NMSU was the No. 1 seed in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament last season, but lost its first two games to get eliminated. This year, the Aggies are looking for that conference tournament title, which would be their first since a 2002 Sun Belt Tournament title.

"It's everything we are here for," Green said about going for a championship. "Four years ago, it was 11 wins and three years later there is an expectation that we can, should and hope to win championships here. That's a testament to the coaches and the players. I am really proud of where the program has come. And we actually have the expectations to do that now. Naturally, the next step is do that. Our job as coaches is to make sure that we don't press. I think this team knows they can win a championship."

The Aggies enter the WAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed and face No. 6 seed Cal State Bakersfield in the first round Wednesday night at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz. NMSU tied with Sacramento State for second place in the conference, but the Hornets had the tiebreaker to give them the No. 2 seed, and a first round bye, over NMSU. Grand Canyon won the regular season title and is the No. 1 seed.

But the good thing for the Aggies is the No. 3 seed has won the WAC Tournament title each of the past two years in Sacramento State last year and Utah Valley in 2016. Green said having to play a extra game as the No. 3 seed doesn't change their approach at all going into the tournament.

"It just means that somebody else gets an opportunity to step up and it means our hitters are going to have six our seven more at-bats potentially," Green said. "It's made the road a little bit harder, but if you're going to win your first championship, it's certainly not going to be easy and we know that. It probably is going to be harder if you're going to have to get over the hump."

Green said the team is feeling confident going into the tournament and said Wednesday's starting pitcher, and NMSU's ace, Kyle Bradish is coming off of his best back-to-back starts of the year and their No. 2 starter Jonathan Groff, has been consistent all season. The Aggies' pitching staff is second in the WAC in ERA at 4.27 and second in opposing batting average at .262.

Groff is second in the league with a 2.56 ERA and wins (10) while Bradish leads the WAC in opposing batting average (.208), strike outs (116) and is fifth in ERA (3.24).

"I think any time you can go a tournament where your starting pitching and your defense is doing what we're doing, that gives your a tremendous amount of confidence," Green said. "Our bullpen has been great and we've played really good team defense. The only scuffle a little bit the past couple of weeks has been our consistency offensively. With those two out of three really clicking right now, we're very confident going in. It's just a matter of us playing our best baseball at the right time."